If they weren’t famous…

As part of my development I have created  screen prints. I wanted to do this as the idea of ‘longing for something past’ is clearly shown through the images of a well known person of our time- our icons in our generation . I particularly like exploring the theme of ‘if they weren’t famous’ as it allows me to play around with the characterisation of a person and what I can imagine their occupations to be- though some more thought about than others. A lot of people have liked the John Lennon and Paul McCartney print as bankers as the background links with their album abbey road as well as the abbey national bank.

Russel Brand’s catch phrase ‘Hare Krishna’ at the end of his comedian shows have inspired me to turn him into a Hare Krishna devotee. I did Johnny Depp as a Doctor- a typical occupation unlikely for his character. Lily Allen is a police woman which is unlikely for her character as she comes across somewhat rebellious in her music videos. Amy Winehouse seems to always have her head in the clouds so I thought an astronaut would be a suited occupation for her. Pete Doherty as a judge is a doubtful and unlikely career choice for himself…

I have completed 6 and hope to do 10 for my collection. Access to screen printing can only happen 2 days a week so I shall continue on with these and on other days I shall be progressing on to something else.

More Tate Britian!

At another visit at the Tate Britian in the South Duveen room I found some very interesting sculptures that took my interest and discovered some artists that I have taken quite an interest in.

List of artists to research more into:

Alison Wilding, Richard Deacon, Rachel Whiteread, Bill Woodrow, Tony Cragg, Sarah Lucas, William Tucker, Barry Flanagan, Philip King, Genghis Khan, Sir Anthony Caro, Richard Hamilton

Although this is not a sculpture I particularly like this screen print in the Duveen called ’3 Cakes on Swivel Chairs’ by Dieter Roth 1971. I like the fact that they are objects that wouldn’t necessarily be found on swivel chairs so his use of objects on completely random objects intrigue me. I also like the many lines he has used in his print allowing him to form the 3D shape in his objects.

Chris Ofili at the Tate Britian is the shit

So the Chris Ofili exhibition has been on today and I have gone down to the Tate Britian. I find his images very pretty and detailed. Yet one question is still unanswered to me… why does he put elephant shit on his work? They seem to be used as stands for his work or used as part of decoration in his pieces.  As I am basing my Unit 11 on Objects and Objectivity I need to think about ideas and concepts such as an artists interest in found objects (junk art…?)

The whole irony and process of looking at an object not being beautiful but at the same time is,  falls into question. Something I could explore further into at this stage…

Pop life at the Tate Modern

I went to the Tate Modern to look at the Pop life exhibition. Like the Beatles to       Bowie exhibition at the NPG I found it very influential especially when looking at Andy Warhol’s images. I am going to look  into more of his work along this week along with Roy Lichtenstein Damien Hirst and David Hockney as although they are well known artists their work on characterisation/location and their use of bold line and colour fascinate me.

Looking at Warhol’s work has made me think that I would quite like to do some screen prints of my own. To do this I will need to make some images of my own icons perhaps?

Beatles to Bowie exhibition at the npg!

http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/beatles/exhib.htm

I have just been back from visiting this exhibition. This has been quite inspiring and I am thinking of looking at icons of our time. I shall still be exploring my other intentions at the beginning of my project that I initially stated but sometimes its good to go a little off track when doing… as long as it relates! Otherwise a developing process would be way too structured and not very exciting would it?

The exhibition explores musical icons of  ‘Swinging London’ in the 1960s. The exhibition is mainly photographs of famous peoples portraits. They seem to feature pop/musical cultural figures such as, The Beatles. There seem to be many images of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones actually.

‘From pure pop, through psychedelia and the birth of progressive music, Beatles to Bowie explores the dramatic developments of pop music and culture, and their lasting impact that continues to live in the memory today’.

Even though this visit was very influential and got me thinking on where I could go next in my project I was a little disappointed that it was just photographs and no other mediums used in the artist’s work (in this exhibition photographers) but then again should this be expected at a portrait gallery? I may have a wonder another time at the other works on display excluding the exhibition I’ve just been to… but overall very very useful.

Some sketches from exhibition below: